Robin Swann addresses foot-and-mouth disease at Westminster

Transcript

00:00In his initial answer, the Secretary of State talked about protecting the UK. He spoke about

00:04our nation's farmers. Part of the advice he gave was to look to www.gov.uk. www.gov.uk

00:11gives advice to Scottish farmers, to English farmers, to Welsh farmers, but not to Northern

00:16Ireland farmers. So the Secretary of State, can I ask you, why have you abandoned Northern

00:21Ireland farmers? The last outbreak in 2001 cost the Northern Ireland economy £24.2 million.

00:28You talk about that small region in Germany that can't export to Northern Ireland. Would

00:33the Secretary of State not agree that it would be better to put in an entire ban from German

00:37products into Northern Ireland, the same as the rest of the United Kingdom?

00:41We stand with farmers across the entire United Kingdom. The circumstances are slightly different

00:48for reasons that the hon. Gentleman will understand, which is why we have to provide appropriate

00:53advice, but we are working absolutely in tandem and lockstep with colleagues across

00:58Europe to beat this horrible disease.